Monday, January 25, 2016

From Goodreads: 10:00 a.m. The
principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech,
welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them
to excel and achieve. 10:02 a.m. The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class. 10:03. The auditorium doors won't open. 10:05. Someone starts shooting. Told
over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives,
terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the
ultimate game of survival.

My Rating: 2.5 hearts

Thoughts on the Novel: With the rise in gun violence and the issue
of gun control in the media, it’s not surprising that Marieke Nijkamp’s This is
Where it Ends ended up on my radar. Then, I found out that Nijkamp is an
advocate of diversity in YA, and I knew I had to read her book.

Unfortunately, although This is Where it Ends features PoC and gay
characters, the characters lacked depth. Also, with the story being narrated
from four different viewpoints, it was hard to connect with any of the
characters, especially when some of their voices sounded kind of similar. Furthermore,
I didn’t like that the main characters were so obviously portrayed to be
victims; each had their own sob story, and it was apparent that I was supposed
to sympathize with them. I wish Nijkamp could have written This is Where it
Ends in such a way that I would have cared about her characters even if they
had trivial problems.

In addition to the four viewpoints, there were tweets, texts, and blog
posts from students in between chapters, which were unnecessary to the story. The voice, however, that was clearly missing from the story was that of
the shooter. Those involved in school shootings often have suffered from years
of abuse or have mental health issues – and that appears to be the case with
Tyler – but there seems to be some vital information missing in This is Where
it Ends. What makes Tyer decide violence is the best solution to his problems?
How does a loving brother and boyfriend become capable of so much cruelty in
such a short amount of time?

Although I felt that This is Where it Ends wasn’t suspenseful enough
and – as cold-hearted as it sounds – didn’t really care about most of the
people that died, I did like the ending. There’s a sense of hope that the town
of Opportunity will recover from the senseless violence with time.

This is Where it Ends was released on January 5, 2016 by
Sourcebooks Fire.

Comments
About the Cover: Its simplicity makes it eye-catching.

In exchange for an honest review, this book was received from the publisher (Sourcebooks) via NetGalley.

Monday, January 18, 2016

From Goodreads: A year ago, Flynn
Cormac and Jubilee Chase made the now infamous Avon Broadcast, calling
on the galaxy to witness for their planet, and protect them from
destruction. Some say Flynn’s a madman, others whisper about
conspiracies. Nobody knows the truth. A year before that, Tarver
Merendsen and Lilac LaRoux were rescued from a terrible shipwreck - now,
they live a public life in front of the cameras, and a secret life away
from the world’s gaze. Now, in the center of the universe on the
planet of Corinth, all four are about to collide with two new players,
who will bring the fight against LaRoux Industries to a head. Gideon
Marchant is an eighteen-year-old computer hacker - a whiz kid and an urban
warrior. He’ll climb, abseil and worm his way past the best security
measures to pull off onsite hacks that others don’t dare touch. Sofia
Quinn has a killer smile, and by the time you’re done noticing it,
she’s got you offering up your wallet, your car, and anything else she
desires. She holds LaRoux Industries responsible for the mysterious
death of her father and is out for revenge at any cost. When a
LaRoux Industries security breach interrupts Gideon and Sofia’s separate
attempts to infiltrate their headquarters, they’re forced to work
together to escape. Each of them has their own reason for wanting to
take down LaRoux Industries, and neither trusts the other. But working
together might be the best chance they have to expose the secrets LRI is
so desperate to hide.

My Rating: 4 hearts

Thoughts on the Novel: While reading This Shattered World by Amie
Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, I thought the Knave of Heartssounded like a pretty interesting character. So, I was thrilled when
I found out that he would be one of the main characters in Their Fractured
Light. Imagine how surprised I was then to find out how personal
his motives really were for wanting to screw Roderick LaRoux!

Although I liked learning more about Gideon and Sofia and seeing them
work as tentative allies, Their Fractured Light became way more enjoyable when
Lilac, Tarver, Flynn, and Jubilee entered the scene because it greatly
increased the tension. What I really loved about Their Fractured Light,
however, was how all the little details that I’d forgotten about from the
previous books in the series came back to play a part in this book. So, if you
haven’t started the Starbound series, it’s good to do so now that all the
books are out; and if you have, it might be worthwhile to reread the previous
books before reading Their Fractured Light to fully appreciate how much planning Kaufman and Spooner must have done
before writing this series.

A splendid conclusion to an amazing series, Their Fractured Light was
released by Disney-Hyperion in December 2015.

Comments About the Cover: This is my favourite cover of the series
because it has a lot of purple, my favourite colour.

Monday, January 11, 2016

From Goodreads: Riley Cavanaugh is many
things: Punk rock. Snarky. Rebellious. And gender fluid. Some days
Riley identifies as a boy, and others as a girl. The thing is ... Riley isn’t exactly out yet. And between starting a new school and
having a congressman father running for reelection in uber-conservative
Orange County, the pressure - media and otherwise - is building up in
Riley’s so-called “normal” life. On the advice of a therapist,
Riley starts an anonymous blog to vent those pent-up feelings and tell
the truth of what it’s REALLY like to be a gender-fluid teenager. But
just as Riley’s starting to settle in at school - even developing feelings
for a mysterious outcast - the blog goes viral, and an unnamed commenter
discovers Riley’s real identity, threatening exposure. Riley must make a
choice: walk away from what the blog has created - a lifeline, new
friends, a cause to believe in - or stand up, come out, and risk
everything.

My Rating: Somewhere between 3 and 3.5 hearts

Thoughts on the Novel: Jeff Garvin’s Symptoms of Being Human
hooked me right away with its beginning line of “The first thing you’re going
to want to know about me is: Am I a boy, or am I a girl?”. It’s a question I’ve
never really given much thought to, but it’s an important issue for trans and
genderqueer teens. That’s why, even though I wasn’t blown away by the story, I
liked Symptoms of Being Human. It shows the challenges of coming out, but also
addresses the importance of speaking up – and does so with a narrator whose
biological sex we never find out, which I thought was pretty cool.

Symptoms
of Being Human will be released on February 2, 2016 by Balzer + Bray.

In exchange for an honest review, this book was received from the publisher (Harpercollins) via Edelweiss...................................................................................................From Goodreads: Seventeen-year-old
Mercedes Ayres has an open-door policy when it comes to her bedroom, but
only if the guy fulfills a specific criteria: he has to be a virgin.
Mercedes lets the boys get their awkward, fumbling first times over
with, and all she asks in return is that they give their girlfriends the
perfect first time- the kind Mercedes never had herself. Keeping
what goes on in her bedroom a secret has been easy - so far. Her
absentee mother isn’t home nearly enough to know about Mercedes’
extracurricular activities, and her uber-religious best friend, Angela,
won’t even say the word “sex” until she gets married. But Mercedes
doesn’t bank on Angela’s boyfriend finding out about her services and
wanting a turn- or on Zach, who likes her for who she is instead of what
she can do in bed. When Mercedes’ perfect system falls apart,
she has to find a way to salvage her reputation and figure out where her
heart really belongs in the process.

My Rating: 1.5 hearts

Thoughts on the Novel: Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn isn’t a
book I’d normally read because I tend to avoid books where there’s cheating.
However, I decided to give it a try for two reasons: 1) Flynn is a Canadian and
2) there aren’t too many YA books that deal directly with sex. Unfortunately,
while there are some good quotes in Firsts about sex, I just couldn’t connect
with its main character, who’s basically a spoiled girl that tries to justify
the fact that she has sex with guys in committed relationships to cover up her
own issues.

Firsts was released by St. Martin’s Griffin on January 5, 2016.

In exchange for an honest review, this book was received from the publisher (Macmillan) via NetGalley.

Tuesday, January 05, 2016

From Goodreads: The trees swallowed her
brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she
revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at
last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and
dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among
them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own.
Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny
struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of
the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between
salvation or sacrifice - and not just her own.

My Rating: 2.5 hearts

Thoughts on the Novel: The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth
Frances Long was a book that captivated me immediately because its beginning reminded
me of Natalie C. Parker’s Beware the Wild.I had no idea that this was a faerie book though, which I typically avoid.
But, Long’s writing was lovely, and I was soon drawn into the story.

Over the course of the novel, however, I became annoyed by Jenny’s
decisions. For example, she chooses to trust Jack for no apparent reason (and
then develops feelings for him quite suddenly too), runs off by herself
whenever her feelings get hurt, and decides to rescue a baby fairy because it's a baby. Uh no, a baby fairy is still a fairy!

As well, the ending was really confusing. I didn’t really understand
what was going on, and I still have no idea how it became possible for Jenny to get her happy ending.

The Treachery of Beautiful Things was released by Dial Books in August
2012.

Comments About the Cover: It’s a pretty cover, but the main character didn't go into the woods in a dress.